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COPYRIGHT DEFOSm 



The Great Exorcism 



By Arthur Crane 



1915 
PUBLISHED BY ARTHUR CRANE 

1278 Market Street, San Francisco, Californi 



Price $1 net, postage paid 



?1 



COPYRIGHT. 1915. BY ARTHUR CRANE 



'All Mysteries," by same author, bound in full limp leather, 
$2, postage paid 



©CI.A410736 

SEP 301915 



PREFACE. 



In 1904, I published my first book, ^^The New 
Philosophy" and I gave away more than 29,000 
copies, refusing to take payment for a single one. 

I then explained that I did not need money, that 
I had a sufficient income to provide for my needs 
and pay for the book as well, that it was my delight 
to give the book free — that other men spent money 
on what pleased them, and I was merely spending 
money on what pleased me. Further, I said that I 
would not sell the inspiration of the truth that had 
come to me — that truth had no price; but I also 
said I would not put myself in a position to be 
called mercenary. Others, who were teaching, 
praying and healing, but who themselves were not 
free from want, were charging so much per folio 
for their inspirations, and the world had its little 
joke at their expense, for, ''the practice of truth," 
said the world, ^^ should not be mercenary." But 
I was, and still am, and please God, ever shall be, 
free from want, yet I was then too lately emanci- 
pated to know that I could have handled the whole 
world's coin without fear, favor, or one instant's 
thought of danger of criticism. 

In 1908, I first published my second book, ^^AU 



Mysteries, ' ' of whicli I gave away no copies what- 
ever, but about 4000 copies have been sold. 

This is a book of action, not contemplation. 
Herein I show that an humble instrument of the 
CHRiSTPOWEE^ without merit in himself, can never- 
theless act that POWER in you. 

This is a living faith. It has life now, inde- 
pendent of the past. It has joy now, independent 
of the future. But the principal thing it has is 
POWER. 

To such as cannot or will not grasp the point of 
view, or trust the christpower^ this book will 
nevertheless be of interest; for it makes the most 
sweeping claims, and, whether one is able to accept 
it or not, it is certainly offered in perfect sincerity 
and humility, as an inspiration of the highest char- 
acter. 

Though I am personally a Counsel of the Su- 
preme Court of the United States, and the recipient 
of other honors, I count nothing that this world 
can give as of the slightest value in comparison to 
the POWER herein explained. So I want no title. 
Call me neither ^^ Honorable," ^^ Esquire" or even 
' ' Mr. ' ' ; just, plain — 

BROTHER CRANE. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE ORIGIN^ OF EVIL. 



What was the origin of evil ? Materialists would 
give one answer, students of mythology a second 
and theologians a third : 

(a) The Materialists answer would be that orig- 
inally there was nothing, except atoms of matter at 
a distance from each other absolutely still and abso- 
lutely cold. There were no governing principles or 
natural laws, only a tendency to exist. Age fol- 
lowed age and a hardly perceptible movement 
began among some of the atoms. This was the 
beginning of consolidation and temperature, which 
from the materialists point of view was an im- 
provement. So the first ^ tendency to exist" now 
became divided into two tendencies, the tendency 
TO exist unimproved^ and the tendency to im- 
prove. 

These two tendencies or wills have been opposing 
each other ever since and were bom into all nature. 
Man, they say, developed by steps and stages from 
the earliest combination of atoms, opposed at every 
stage by that portion of the universe, (or by that 
tendency to exist unimproved at all times animat- 
ing toward him that portion of the universe), less 



advanced than himself. Thus the tendency to exist 
unimproved manifests itself, by animating in lower 
life a hatred for the higher, and materialists have 
a theory that material germs, or low forms of life, 
flying through the air and entering the body of 
man, cause all diseases. Again, whether it be 
poison of the body or of the mind, it is this ten- 
dency, fighting man in the one case by lower forms 
of matter, in the other by suggestions of lower life. 
Sin, they say, is yielding to the spirit of unim- 
provement. 

When at last man was born he became conscious 
of the struggle between these two tendencies, and 
alternately falling into the power of the one, and 
being inspired by the pure idealism of the other, 
he has progressed, it is true, but stumblingly and 
haltingly, with the horde of tendencies just be- 
hind him, always more and more powerful to pull 
him back into the abyss. Every stage of develop- 
ment left behind represents a separate tendency 
doing its best to draw us back to that stage. So 
as man progressed more and more he had more 
and more tendencies (the materialists' devils) to 
contend with. 

The logical conclusion would be that the IDEAXi 
is man's guardian angel and beastliness his devil. 
But we can not expect people calling themselves 
materialists to use other than material terms. 

(b) Students of mythology give a hundred 
fanciful personal names to the tendencies of both 
kinds. One kind were ^^gods" and the other kind 
demons or dragons. Both kinds were given offer- 
ings, the gods in order that they would befriend 
in time of need, and the dragons so that they 
would not devour the whole of the people. The 
offering to the dragon was very usually a maiden, 
sometimes chained to a rock like Andromeda. It 
may be that the form of the dragon was suggested 
by some survival of pterodactyl or dinosaurus, 
but in any event it was the ancient type, the power 
of a past stage of development. On the other hand 



the ^^gods" were ideals. They were personifica- 
tions of qualities, such as wisdom, swiftness, 
power, beauty, etc. Here again we have the eter- 
nal struggle between the bestial and the ideal, be- 
tween the tendency of the dragon to exist and the 
tendency of man to rise. 

These gods were not all powerful nor were they 
the authors of evil. They usually caused good to 
come out of evil, but that was only in the sense of 
* ^making the best of a bad job." Progress as rep- 
resented by the mythological gods, made good 
come out of evil by using evil as a brake, so that 
all phases of development should keep pace with 
each other and not one outrun the ^Heam." ^^ For- 
ward, but not too fast," seems to have been its 
motto. The separate power of evil was known 
and recognized and no one denied its existence. 

No one does now, as far as I know, except in a 
way, viz., some tell us to combat evil by denying 
its existence. The ordinary layman naturally re- 
plies, ^^If it has no existence why combat itl" 
This answer does not feaze them in the least; we 
are told to combat the seeming existence of evil by 
denying its reality. By its reality is meant its 
power to effectively prevent the advance, progress 
and development of man. And the student of 
mythology would hold this to be true as to the 
race and type but not as to the individual. The 
gods, it was said, were powerless to save the royal 
line of Croesus to the throne of Media, nor could 
they help any individual after his fate, howso- 
ever accidentally, had been pronounced. They did 
save Andromeda from the dragon, but that was a 
special dispensation, and besides, her fate had not 
been pronounced by the ^^ Pythoness" or evil spirit 
of the Delphic oracle. 

It would seem then that only a very unselfish 
man could ignore the existence of evil, which as far 
as he personally is concerned, is a threat of real 
and irreparable disaster, but he has the unselfish 
satisfaction of knowing, that if such disaster 



should come upon him, or Ms loved ones, out of 
that disaster, the spirit of progress will cause no 
harm to come to the race as a whole. I may fear- 
lessly walk this earth, scorning accident, disease, 
misfortune, sorrow, pain, slander or death, if my 
mind is set only on the advancement, development, 
and progress of mankind as a whole. This, in a 
rational being, with a calculating, analyzing brain 
and a warm heart, could not be, unless he felt such 
a kinship to mankind as to be an indivisible part 
of the whole, inseparably allied to what he felt to 
be the one spirit of advancing life, and destined to 
live on, in that spirit, to and through what glor- 
ious development the future ages may have in 
store, regardless of what happens to his body, his 
individuality, his achievements or his loved ones. 
This is the height of unselfishness reached by those 
who sincerely deny the reality of evil. 

(c) Theologians say that in the beginning was 
the Logos, i. e., the Word, the Ideal, the Advanc- 
ing One. There were in heaven, also, vast num- 
bers of angels. These angels became divided into 
two bands and fought a mighty battle in heaven 
when the band headed by the rebellious angel 
Lucifer was defeated and cast out of heaven. How- 
ever, the rebel angels, now called devils, landed 
siafely on the Earth, to which the struggle has 
been transferred, and is now taking place in the 
heart of man. The demons of our age were angels 
of a bygone age. They once were loyal to the 
Word, but failing to keep up with their loyalty 
it became necessary to declare war upon them, 
which war has been continued ever since. Every 
man hears ^Hhe voice of Jesus calling" on the one 
hand and is "tempted by the devil" on the other. 
Sometimes the devil assumes the form of an angel 
of light and deceives man. Ood, say the theolo- 
gians, cannot prevent man from being deceived 
and tempted by the devil, but he can punish those 
who fall. The theologians are divided in their 
opinion as to the physical reality of eternal tor- 



ture in Hell. A prominent preacher, Pastor Rus- 
sell, does not believe in a hell at all, while others 
preach all the horrors of the *4ake of fire which 
burneth forever and ever, where their worm dieth 
not and their fire is not quenched." It may be 
that the idea of eternal and everlasting punish- 
ment came first in contemplation of the serpent, 
which, as an animal, seems to be fixed, and in- 
capable of developing into anything higher. For 
it to lose the capacity for development is an irre- 
vocable sentence to stay as it is for eternity; it is 
a loss of birthright, never recoverable. If the 
devil be the ^ tendency to exist unimproved," then 
such a fate is literally falling into the clutches of 
the devil for ever and ever. 

Other races of vegetable and animal life seem to 
be ^^ fixed." These are the races that have died the 
death eternal. The lizards and ^^ missing links" 
of the past, now extinct, have not died in this 
worst sense because they have died but to live 
again in advanced forms. To become ^' fixed" 
would therefore be the worst death for a race. 

By the theologians, again, we are told to imitate 
the example of One who counted his own life as 
nothing that the race of man might be saved. A 
new ideal to which we shall press forward, though 
the individual may be despised, rejected and slain. 
Thus, and only thus, they say, can we overcome in 
that terrific conflict still being waged between the 
forces of good and evil. Here again no thinking 
man can be ready to sacrifice all for that Divine 
Ideal unless he feels a Oneness with the race, a 
vital gladness in the thought of its advancement 
and a consciousness that his real ego is identical 
with the imperishable Logos. 



Here, then we have three distinct histories of the 
origin of evil, but the difference between them, 
from an analytical point of view is more a matter 
of names and of personifications than of substance. 
Men have just as gladly laid down their lives to 



fight the evils seen by science, and to fight the 
dragons imagined by mythology, as they have for 
the sake of the ideals of religion. As far as the 
individuals were concerned, they went down, but 
who shall say that one single one of those deaths 
was in vain, for the advancement of the race and 
the glory of those ideals for which they died? 

No one can escape the conflict with evil. No 
one can be sure that he will not su:ffer and die in 
that conflict. The most one can do is to forever 
refuse to surrender. 

The theory of the constant advancement of the 
race being the Good tendency or power, involves 
the necessity for the simultaneous and sponta- 
neous birth, in every being born, of an Ideal. 

The Ideal, thus incarnated, seems an imperish- 
able picture, or image, of an advancement not yet 
realized. 

This Ideal is the soul. Now, if a race should be 
born without that Ideal, all progress would cease 
and the race become ^* fixed," because century 
after century might pass and still the race, with- 
out the Ideal, could not advance, for the Ideal is 
the only spark of advancement, and without it the 
race would fall forever into the power of the 
Tendency to exist unimproved. 

This brings us to the proposition, that one ani- 
mated by soul will never find his or her ideal man 
or woman. For the Ideal implanted in the breast 
is not for the purpose of comparison with the race 
as it now is, but for the purpose of being born in 
the flesh, and to be realized in the next, or in 
future, generations. 

Theologians tell us that man is the only animal 
endowed with Soul or Ideal. Man is the only 
animal now advancing — and all other animals are 
^^ fixed," not possessing that eternal spark of the 
Logos or Ideal. 



Those who cannot see that there are any evil 
powers, or that there could be any power except 



10 



the ** all-powerful good," find it difficult to explain 
the accidents, horrors and calamities which befall 
even the ** righteous." 

That ^^good" is all-powerful, in the way the 
word ^^ omnipotent" was first used, may be ad- 
mitted; namely, that it is a stronger power than 
evil, and will win in the end. But the thoughtful 
man will not of himself evolve a theory blaming 
every accident or other adverse event upon the 
^^good" power, nor will he of himself think that 
such are ^^visitations of the wrath of God," or are 
sent to us by the Divine will because they are 
^^good for us." It obviously would not be neces- 
sary, to an omnipotent power, to destroy a city by 
fire, or sink a boat-load of innocent excursionists, 
in order to teach to the bereaved the doctrine of 
patience. Neither would He do evil that good 
might come if He were omnipotent good. Again, 
by the standard of right and wrong implanted in 
the human breast, it would not be possible for the 
Ideal Good to have wrath, or to destroy our lives 
to appease it; and Bible students tell us that the 
Hebrew word translated ^^ wrath," should more 
properly have been translated merely as a syn- 
onym for power. 

Neither would it be possible that the Divine 
Good should be the author of what mental aber- 
ration in ourselves or kinks in our environment, 
are translated by the words ^^sin, sickness and 
death." 

Although these things are not real in the sense 
that they will not conquer in the end, to those 
who suffer humiliation through sin, as well as to 
those who feel the ^^ claims" of sickness and those 
who are bereaved by the ^^ claims" of death, these 
things are very real, as real as anything that 
comes to their consciousness. Whether the cause 
of them be the evil infltje^^ce of the tendency or 
will to exist unimproved, or the evil influence of 
demons or devils, the result is the same. The 
opposing WILL, adverse to mankind, is the power 



11 



ever laying its hands upon us in hate and attempt- 
ing to draw us back into everlasting death. That 
adverse will, although less powerful in the end than 
the will of the Ideal or christpowee^ is still a 
belligerent, and. must be recognized as such, 
whether we personify it under various names 
according to its various aspects or not. The battle 
ground is everywhere. Each one knows the phase 
of the great adversary most pressing against him. 
To the materialists, no less than to the idealists, 
the battle is a real one. The di:fference is one 
largely of names and personifications. 

Should we then fold our hands because we 
believe good will triumph over evil in the end*? 

Can we supinely surrender to the evil powers 
now, in the knowledge that in any event the human 
race will not be injured by our cowardice, because 
the Power of Good is able to bring good out of 
evil? 

Those are the questions which each one has to 
honestly face in his own heart and much depends, 
for him, on the answer that he gives. 

Man's body is the temple of the living Logos or 
Word. Man's soul, the only I am, is that Logos. 
In any event the ^^I am" within us will overcome 
evil in the end, but because the battle with the evil 
powers threatens that sense, which we have, of 
individual or separate life, we must not individ- 
ually or separately surrender, or even rest quietly 
under the attacks of the enemy. 



CHAPTER II. 



THE SECEET POWEK. 



Materialists hold that matter in small particles 
is all that exists, and that by a peculiar arrange- 
ment these small particles ^^ organize" into flesh 
and blood. They do not believe in ^^ influences," 
good or bad. They do not believe that Christ 
^'cast out" devils, or now can; and yet they believe 
that these infinitely small invisible particles, called 
electrons, know where to go, and by the force of 
their own knowledge and will, form themselves 
into atoms also so small as to be invisible, of 
various different substances. They say ^^ nothing 
exists but electrons." Then, they say, those atoms 
of various substances, combine in various propor- 
tions to make ^'molecules" and that thousands of 
molecules make a simple cell, and that such cells 
form muscle, blood and brain. None of them have 
ever seen, in the strongest microscope, an electron, 
an atom, a molecule, or such a cell. But because 
they consider some material theory necessary, they 
say those invisible things make up the universe. 

As to the question of how thought may be pro- 
duced, the scientists were formerly divided. Many 
owned they were puzzled on this point, but they 

13 



now all agree that those invisible entities which 
they call electrons are able, in some mysterious 
way, to segregate themselves; then, seeming t^ 
know where to go, these electrons form combina- 
tions in our bodies which produce thought, will, 
idealism and even love. 

An invisible entity that knows where to go, and 
produces thought by its combinations in our 
bodies, is the present belief of materialists, and is 
the modern successor of the ancient belief that ^'a 
million devils could dance on the point of a 
needle." 

Materialists admit that sometimes these elec- 
trons, or ions, start going the wrong way, bringing 
all kinds of trouble. Their problem then is how to 
get rid of them. They say that if a finer, stronger, 
electrical force could be brought to bear, the elec- 
trons which had determined to go the wrong way, 
could be driven out of the system, curing all ills, 
mental and physical. 

A little thought, and we will discover that these 
are precisely the same impressions as others 
receive, but under different names. 

Let the scientists conceive of those ikfltjeis^ces 
which they feel, as invisible ^^ions," running riot 
of their own perverted will, within them. They 
are then in exactly the same helpless fix as if they 
conceived them to be ^^ demons" — until that supe- 
rior POWER is invoked which can conquer. 

In other words, it makes no difference, either in 
the suffering, or the remedy, whether they name 
the INFLUENCES ^'ions," or ^^ demons," or what 
they name the POWER that saves them. 

All peoples, nations, churches and schools, are 
converging toward a common understanding of the 
INFLTJENCES that affect the lives of men. Whether 
they are called electrons, ions, manias, demons, or 
spirits, there is a common knowledge of their 
inferior power, and a common instinct that some- 
where there is a SUPERIOR POWER which can 
cast them out. 

14 



^^ Influences/" we will see, are living, invisible 
beings. In all races their power has early been 
felt, and they are now recognized universally 
under various names, such as '' obsessions," 
^^ guides," ''spirit forces," ''Elementals," ''Earth 
spirits," and under other names and disguises, 
as explained elsewhere. 

Man has always been in slavery to these "in- 
fluences/" and it will be well to consider not only 
the universal experience of mankind in ages past 
but also the present feeling in every tribe and 
nation of primitive people, where such feeling 
seems to have come spontaneously and identically 
to far separated nations, indicating that there is 
something, whatever we may call it — some in- 
fluence^ which those peoples actually feel. 

So it was from the earliest dawn of history. 
Influences have always been felt. Even before 
the ancient Aryan migration the primitive people 
of the East called them "demons." 

"In the beginning there was," saith an ancient 
writing, "but one man, and there came to tempt 
him, one demon. Men died, but demons did not 
die, and each generation was oppressed, not only 
by its own demons, but by those of the generations 
which went before."* 

Allatu was the name given the Queen of Hell 
by the Babylonians, and Namtar was the name 
given the plague demon who brought sickness and 
disease. Their secret names were engraved on 
certain tablets of destiny, which, it was believed, 
would thereafter come into the possession of ONE 
who would have power over Allatu and Namtar, 
by virtue of the knowledge of that secret name, 
and of the secret name of Ea or God. Tiamet was 
another name for the Queen of Demons, who was 
also the foster mother of the terrible influences 
which stultify the brain. Tiamet was identical 



♦Attributed, perhaps erroneously, to Hecataeus, who was accorded 
by Herodotus the honor of being the first historian. 

15 



with ^^ Behemoth" and with ^^Ishtar the Daughter 
of Sin," who came to men in dreams to tempt 
them. She was also identical with Astarte. 

Shutu, the demon of tempest and war, was 
identical with Abaddon. 

The struggle of man against ii^^fluences is the 
whole history of the world. Every religion has 
been an organized effort to ^*cast out devils"; 
every war has been a temporary ascendency of 
INFLUENCES ; every progress has been accompanied 
by progressive influences^, so that ^^Evil" can be 
said to have progressed no less than civilization. 

The Buddists in India sought to combat the evil 
INFLUENCES which Oppressed their lives. These 
INFLUENCES Were then called ^^Asuras." It is said 
that these ancient influences are still dwelling 
with us, invisible, malevolent and powerful. Also 
that many other and younger spirits afflict man- 
kind and now threaten to destroy us utterly. 

But for the cheistpowee^ it would be terrible to 
know of the awful unseen influences ; such knowl- 
edge would drive the strongest unaided human 
brain insane, and unless the reader is willing to be 
put to the choice of insanity or acceptance of the 
CHEiSTPOWEE^ he should read no further. Knowl- 
edge of the truth without acceptance makes the 
mind pe<3uliarly susceptible to influences. They 
fasten themselves gradually upon you, bring 
dreams and imaginings, seem to set the rest of the 
world against you, and torment you into insanity 
and death. 

It is not ^^ truth" which will have these awful 
consequences, but your deliberate neglect to accept 
the CHEiSTPOWEE. Better harden your heart, seek 
not to advance and develop, than delve for curios- 
ity's sake, and expose your mind to these forces 
without the armor of the cheistpowek. 

The ancient Persians recognized the oppressions 
of INFLUENCES^ and separated them into classes, 
calling the most oppressive one ^^Ahriman," and 
the twenty-eight next worst, ^^devs." Ahriman 



16 



then created an infinite number of evil spirits and 
made an egg containing **the force of spirits of 
the darkness." All these forces or ''influences" 
slip into the body, according to the belief, and 
produce all diseases; and into the mind and pro- 
duce all malice. It was declared that ultimately 
One would arise, having power over all those 
spirits, devs and influences;, and free mankind. 

That these beliefs all arose from the conscious- 
ness of such INFLUENCES;, there can be no doubt, 
and it is equally certain that every such influ- 
ence still exists — as much alive to-day as ever — 
and subject only to the exercise of christpowek — 
to which alone it must bow. 

In the ancient Egyptian system the name given 
to the chief influence was ''Set." Here again 
there were a host of spirits, each one powerful 
over man in some particular direction, and des- 
tined to torture him until the day should dawn 
when the "Master spirit should arise, put down 
all other spirits and free mankind from their 
power." 

In ancient Greece, according to Empedocles, the 
influence of a host of malevolent demons was felt, 
each one of a different grade, but all destined to 
plague man, from which plague it was supposed, 
no relief could be obtained. 

Alexandrian philosophers gathered from every 
known country the experiences of man, and com- 
bined all the systems or tables of Earth spirits in 
one. In this table were classified thirteen kinds of 
demons. 

First, False gods, whose Prince is Beelzebub. 

Second, Slandering spirits, whose head is 
Apollyon. 

Third, inventors of mischief and creators of 
anger, whose Prince is Belial. 

Fourth, malicious revenging devils, whose 
Prince is Asmodeus. 

Fifth, devils which blind men to the truth of 
their manhood, whose Prince is Satan. 

17 



Sixth, devils who corrupt the air and cause 
plagues and diseases, whose Prince is Meresin. 

Seventh, the destroyer, causing wars, tumults, 
misunderstandings, uproars, etc., whose name is 
Abaddon. 

Eighth, the accusing, calumniating devils that 
drive men to despair, whose Prince is Diabolis. 

ISTinth, the devils who tempt men to hoard gold, 
and love it, holding before them a false vision of 
more gold, leading them ever into want and fail- 
ure, whose King is Mammon. 

Tenth, Moloch, Prince of tears, pressing down 
on men all sorrows and disappointments. 

Eleventh, devils who work injustice, whose 
Prince is Lucifer. 

Twelfth, spirits who cause the best intentioned 
plans to fail, the demons of '^bad luck,'' whose 
Prince is Antichrist. 

Thirteenth, spirits who deaden the intellect and 
perception, who make man speechless when he 
should speak or make him speak foolishly when he 
would have better kept quiet; their Queen is 
Astarte — she also comes in dreams, with her legion 
of incubi and succubi. 

It may be from these thirteen kinds of I:^f^LU- 
EXCES;, bringing thirteen kinds of evils, that the 
number ^^13" first was known as ^^ unlucky." 

However, it is sure that all those kinds of 
INFLUENCES still exist, though we no longer call 
them ^'devils." Let us deny, if we can, that Beezle- 
bub, ApoUyon, Belial, Asmodeus, Satan, Meresin, 
Abaddon, Diabolis, Mammon, Moloch, Lucifer, 
Antichrist and Astarte are the right names of 
those living invisible infltjences that enslave and 
torture man to-day ; yet no man on looking within, 
on his own tortured soul, or without, on the injus- 
tice and disappointments of the world, can deny 
that these infltjexces are as much ALIVE to-day 
as they ever were — ^that they are strong in the high 
places of the earth — and that the fulness of time 
is at hand, when the christpowee^ exercised 

18 



humbly by ITS servant — when that power — and 
in all humility I say it — SHALL cast them out! 

These names of the thirteen powers of evil 
always had a measure of psychic power, but be- 
sides these names, there were secret names for 
each. Each secret name, if uttered, brought on 
immediate corresponding disaster. Even now a 
curious mental effect is produced by the mere 
utterance of the ordinary names of the thirteen 
^^ powers." 

The secret names should only be pronounced by 
one through whom the christpower is exercised, 
for the purpose of casting out those dreadful 

IKPLTJENCES. 

One of those secret names was revealed to Jacob 
Boehm, and to him was given a very large measure; 
of the CHRISTPOWER; but he declared "that he 
could not, without peril to his soul, disclose the 
secret name of Lucifer, so tremendous would be 
the consequences." 

Many writers have gathered data of the inflij- 
ENCES felt in the so-called dark ages. Of the books 
so compiled, one of the most instructive is ^^La 
Sorciere," by J. Michelet, a copy of which is still 
to be found at the Congressional Library at Wash- 
ington. According to all those writers the per- 
vading demons were those who entered into women 
and transformed them into witches. Michelet 
quotes forty other authors all to the same effect. 

Every time great hate was caused by great oppression and 
this great hate mingled, in the soul of a woman with her 
natural great love, a new devil was felt to be born in her. 

''Who says the old devils are dead?" asks Michelet. 
''They must be still alive. Where are they? In the desert, 
on the moor, in the forest ? Ay ; but above all in the house. ' ' 
People felt themselves to be double, felt that other within 
them, became wasted and weakened more and more, and the 
weaker grew their wretched bodies, the more they were 
worried by the devils. In women, especially, these tyrants 
dwell. 

And not ourselves only, but all nature, alas! becomes 
demonaic. If there is a devil in a flower, how much more in 
the gloomy forest! That divine morning Star, whose glor- 

19 



ioDS beams not seldom lightened a Socrates, an Archimedes, 
a Plato, what is it now become? A devil, the arch fiend 
Lucifer. In the eventime again, it is the devil Venus who 
draws me into temptation by her light so soft and mild. 

Again, when feudal powers were forming, there was here 
and there an independent soul who tilled his own land and 
held it, not under another man, but as a freeholder. He 
was the especial mark of spirits. His land would bear 
nothing, spirits swept it clean by nights. There was felt the 
hoggish spirit of Satan. Men were made serfs, without hope 
of resisting despair — and so the hate was distilled, that, 
mingled with the love of fireside, begat the little devils in 
the world that now have grown big, and storm and rage. 
And because women bore the hardest terrors of that terrible 
time, so it was mostly in women's souls that those little devils 
were born. 

In France they were called goblins, in Switzer- 
land trolls and in Grermany Kobolds or nixies. The 
woman says at first, ^^What matters? He is so 
small,'' and Michelet adds this significant ques- 
tion, ^^ Should we too feel reassured, we who 

CAN SEE more CLEARLY? 

The INFLUENCE of Satan arose out of an overwhelming 
despair, under the weight of dreadful outrages and dreadful 
sufferings. Before the will could be reduced to the dreadful 
pass of selling itself to Satan forever, it must be made thor- 
oughly desperate. It was needed the pressure of the age of 
iron, of cruel deeds; it was needful that hell itself should 
seem a shelter, an asylum, by contrast with the hell on earth. 
In the year 1300, the feudal lord first demanded payment in 
gold, the INFLUENCE of the demon Mammon gaining ascend- 
ency in that year. The world was changed. All were des- 
perate, then the little fireside demon of Satan whispers to 
the woman's heart that God has forsaken her, that earth is 
hell, that she should give herself to him, and he will help 
her against the world. This is the origin of "Witchcraft, a 
madness so universal in the dark ages that even in our own 
time some remnants remained over, down from those middle 
centuries. 

Michelet gives the name Leviathan to the lead- 
ing demon of trickery and evil speaking. He adds 
that in the 16th century there were 6500 Levia- 
than devils in a girl named Madeline, used by 
certain persecutors to give false evidence against 
those accused of witchcraft. 

20 



In Webster's work on the subject,* a case is 
given, with every appearance of authentication, of 
a child who accidentally overheard an exorcist 
pronounce the secret name of Abaddon, one of the 
so-called Princes of evil. The child afterwards 
repeated the word over and over till such light- 
nings were induced from the sky that the whole 
village was, like Sodom, destroyed. 

There was known to be a hidden name of God, 
which would be revealed to whom He chose in due 
season. That One was to come, who, by virtue of 
that Hidden name, would know the secret names 
of every kind of demon. Solomon was supposed 
to possess a signet ring with that hidden name 
of God engraved upon it, which gave him com- 
mand of the spirits. The Jewish historian, 
Josephus, assures us that God taught Solomon the 
secret names by which demons were to be expelled 
and diseases healed. But the Name was lost for a 
time till Christ came, and the chkistpower. Not 
by any personal merit can the revelation of that 
Name be obtained. It is a Name of power, and is 
revealed only in order that, in the fulness of time, 
it should have that effect which should be the 
WILL OP GOD. 



A review of history shows that the madness now 
afflicting the world is only one of a sequence of 
general obsessions. 

One madness was lycanthropia, which began 
about 1200 A. D., and spread until toward the 
end of the sixteenth century. Oppressed by this 
^'madness of satan," men believed they were 
wolves, day work was demoralized and the popu- 
lation could be found prowling around at night, 
howling and fighting. This obsession spread 
through the whole of central and southern Europe, 
but by the year 1598 a reaction began; men who 
had ^^ recovered" persecuted those who were still 

*Referred to in 5 Am. Cyc. 795. 

21 



^*mad/' ttLousands were put to death; one judge 
alone, in the district of the Jura, put 600 lycan- 
thi'OiDes to death. 

Dui'ing the same period a strange dancing mad- 
ness broke out. On July 1. 1374. the whole popu- 
lation aroimd Aix-la-Chapelle rushed into the city 
and began to dance. They danced in circles with 
the utmost violence, till at last they sank to the 
ground, groaning fearfully. According to the 
historians, the victim seemed to see spirits of the 
air. and called out the secret name of the demon 
Meresin; all who heard that original name imme- 
diately became afflicted with the same disorder, 
and danced, as if by compulsion, till they, in their 
turn fell down exhausted, and called out, in their 
turn, that they had seen the awful spirit whose 
secret name they announced, thus bringing still 
others into the snare. In that way the disease 
spread in a few months over the north of Europe. 
Those who came, incredulous, to witness the phe- 
nomenon, were themselves seized, the moment they 
heard the secret name of Meresin, with an irresist- 
ible impulse to dance, and they became di^eadfully 
ecstatic in their turn. It was literally the "dance 
of death," and swept the country like a scourge, 
till, two centuries later, the secret name of Meresin 
was said to have lost its 230wer for a season, and 
no more victims were fascinated by the contagion. 

Persecution followed, as usual, and. one would 
think, the rsTLiTEXCE ins^Diring the persecution was 
no less a demon than that bewitchmg the dancers. 
One class of the people were afflicted with what 
we may call the Meresin rsTLrEXCE^ and the other 
with the Asmodeus inflttexce — causing stern, 
cruel, avenging persecution of those who are 
deemed to be '' possessecV' \ but the avengers were 
themselves possessed no less than the others, 
though differently. Asmodeus is assuredly as bad 
as Meresin I 

In our own time, by the ripening of forces, or 
by the development of secret powers, the world is 

22 



given over to the triplet madnesses of war, disease, 
and lucre. THe influences^ called of old by the 
names of Abaddon, Meresin and Mammon, have 
more seeming power in this day and age than ever 
before. 

Whole nations are in love with war. They have 
a great passion for war itself. None know what 
they are lighting for — ^nor seem to care — the 
INFLUENCE wMch eggs them on does not reveal his 
name. If a soldier, spurred on, as he believes, 
with the holy fire of love for his flag, should be 
told that he was under an undesirable influence^ 
whose name in ancient days was called Abaddon, 
he could not believe it, because that influence 
lures its victims by a vision of military ^' glory," 
so bright that it shuts out all else. 

There is also a madness of disease oppressing 
mankind, the like of which has never appeared 
before. The individual who is really free from 
pains and aches is an exception. Classified as 
fevers, colds, nerve pains, liver complaints or what 
not, even the daily salutation has become, ^^How 
are you?" and the answer, ^^ Quite well, thank 
you," shows that it is generally thought necessary 
to deny the existence of pain and sickness. 

Many people believe themselves to be well, who 
have become so accustomed to the Meresin influ- 
ence that they can stand it without complaining. 
Patience has been learned by them to such an 
extent that they can now be patient under their 
bodily troubles as a matter of course. To them 
even one day of real freedom would be a revela- 
tion of joy. 

It is the fashion among the comparatively well 
to pretend to perfect health. Others, even while 
suffering, reason that since there is a God causing 
omnipresent good, no evil can be real; ergo, the 
suffering must be an obsession of the mind. This 
obsession, or spirit, oppressing them, they claim, 
is very sensitive, and if its real existence be denied, 
it will vanish. Hence it becomes right, and neces- 

23 



sary to them, to deny that they feel pains or aches 
or feel oppressed or sick. With them it is largely 
a matter of definition. They, too, will admit, when 
the right words are used, that the ''claims'' of 
disease and pain are more numerous than ever 
before. 

Again, this day and age is one of money-mad- 
ness. Nearly all are short of money; they are not 
in privation, but ''in want." No matter how much 
one has he feels a want for more. Mammon dances 
before him with a flickering light, ever promising, 
never fulfilling, and those whose souls are most 
strongly bound to this iNFLUEiNrcE never get the 
money independence they so anxiously crave. 
Blind is the money-mad world, blind, blind ! How 
foolish to think that, by spiritual slavery, physical 
independence can be achieved! We hear of those 
with wealth untold. If they really have all they 
want, they are the few who are free from this 
IXFLTJEXCE. Mammon says, "Worship me, and I 
will make you rich," but alas for those credulous 
enough to believe it! Every opportunity slips 
from their grasp; none of their plans or dreams 
come true, and those that owe them money are by 
this INFLUENCE prevented from paying it. For 
this is the ixfltjexce that drives men crazy with 
the love of money. Cunning enough to know that 
if its victim gets plenty of money, he is not so 
likely to be enthralled, the influence prevents him 
from ever attaining. Like a will-o'-the-wisp, it 
ever leads on, never arriving, pretending to invite 
to a feast of golden fruitage, and instead dashing 
its victims over a precipice of debt, disappoint- 
ment and despair. 



24 



CHAPTER III 



LITERATUEE ON IKFLUENCES. 



Sir Walter Scott left a collection of letters on 
demonology and witchcraft, asserting that ^^the 
universal belief of the inhabitants of the earth in 
the existence of spirits is grounded on the con- 
sciousness that speaks in our bosoms." 

The Celtic tribes possessed, in common with all others, a 
natural tendency to the worship of the evil principle — and 
there are many still alive who, in childhood have looked with 
wonder on certain patches of ground left uncultivated be- 
cause, whenever a plowshare entered the soil, the Elementary 
spirits were supposed to testify their displeasure by storm 
and thunder. 



R. C. Thomson, by researches in ancient parts of 
the world, has collected photographs of ancient 
clay tablets originally written in the Sumerian 
language of Mesopotamia. They are all invoca- 
tions against influences. Part of number IX 
may be translated: 

Invoke the great God 

That the evil spirit, the evil demon, evil ghost, 

Fever and the heavy sickness which is in the body of the 
man, 

May be removed and go forth ! 

0, evil spirit! 0, evil demon! 0, evil ghost! 

25 



O, Sickness of the heart ! 

O, Heartache! 0, Headache! O, Toothache! O, Namtar! 

Be ye cast out! 



''In Egypt," says T. Witton Davies,* ''Disease 
was considered due to demons, and certain for- 
mulae, when recited, drove the demons out." 

Now, in every land, the belief in evil spirits is universal. 
Among the Chinese, Dravidians, Arabs, Singalese, etc. 

In the early Church, infant baptism originated in the 
view that until baptism the child was in the power of an evil 
spirit. 

In the book of Tobit of the Apocrypha, the first mention 
of the demon Asmodius is made under that name, and it is 
told that he killed seven men but that Tobias overcame him 
and drove him into Egypt. 

Demons may now be designated according to the diseases 
they induce. 

Among the Assyrians, demons were at first named after 
diseases due to them. Afterwards the name became the same 
for the disease and the demon. 

To the innumerable company of demons belong the seven 
evil spirits whose names and full character are mysterious. 
They sow the seeds of discord in family life. 

To bring about strife, quarrels and wars, is their delight. 
There is no disease which they may not induce. All con- 
ceivable ills they produce and promote. 

Demons were also believed by the Egyptians, as by others, 
to bring about sickness, death and all sorts of misfortunes. 



A. B. Waite has compiled a large book of the 
history and description of the names given in 
times past to the various influences. In this 
book, entitled "Black Magic," he gives the words 
of each ritual whereby the actual apparition of 
each spirit can be invoked, warning readers 
against using them by saying that "to the extent 
that these processes are practical — and it would 
be absurd to suppose that the seering processes of 
ancient magic did not produce seership — they are 
dangerous." 

There can be no extensive literatures without motives 
proportionate to account for them. The literature referring 

*"Magic." Published by deLaurence-Scott Co. 



to the INFLUENCES as demons is exceedingly large. 

A great many of these works are collections of religious 
charms against demons. 

The ''Grand Grinmore" claims to be the magnum opus, 
the greatest book of the world — the priceless treasure, King 
Solomon's own writing. What other man would have had 
the hardihood to reveal the withering words which God makes 
use of to strike terror into the demons and compel them to 
obedience? He soared into heaven and learned the secret 
words of power ; he penetrated the remotest haunts of demons 
and forced them to obey him. 

The three strongest demons were Lucifer, Beezlebub and 
Astaroth (or Astarte). Then Lucifuge Rofocale, who was 
identical with Mammon and Baal and many others, all of 
whom as far as the influences which reached and affected 
man were concerned, were capable of being segregated into 
the same thirteen classes now recognized. 

The principal exorcism was the pronunciation of the 
secret name, ADONAI. 



In the Book of the ^^ Sacred Magic," translated 
from the original Hebrew into French and thence 
into English by MacGregor-Mathers,* the names 
of 328 demons are given, of which 316 are divided 
into twelve groups, and the other twelve are supe- 
rior. These names are headed with the names of 
Lucifer, Satan and Belial — with Leviathan (iden- 
tical with ApoUyon), and Astaroth, Asmodeus and 
Beelzebub. The original author, ^^ Abraham the 
Jew," adds: 

''Infinite be the Spirits which I could have here set down 
but I have thought fit to put only those whom I have myself 
experienced. 

''In the name of the most Holy Adonai, the true and only 
God I pray and conjure you to be the declared enemy of all 
the evil spirits during the whole of your life. 

"The rage of the demons is so great and their grief so 
poignant at the advancement of the human race and their 
own degradation, that there is no evil which they will not 
be ready to work, they being always attracted by the idea 
of the destruction of humans." 



Daniel Defoe, in a very old volume which may 
still be seen at the British Museum, says that the 

*See Manuscript in the Bibliotheque de I'Arsenal at Paris. 

27 



demon Abaddon, first appeared to an Arabian in 
the Court of one of the most ancient of the 
Pharaohs and told him to foretell that the Ethi- 
opians were about to attack Egypt, like a big black 
elephant, and advise the King to make war first 
in anticipation. Even to-day that rNTFLUENCE 
works in the same way by suggesting to one 
country that some other is about to make war on 
it — thus causing it to begin the war — and feel 
forced to do so. 



M. D. Conway has written two large volumes on 
Demonology, which can be obtained, if not now out 
of print, from Holt & Co., of J^ew York. 

Every degree of ascent of the moral nature, he says, has 
been marked by innumerable new shadows east athwart the 
mind and life of man. Every new heaven of ideas is followed 
by a new earth, but ere this conformity of things to thoughts 
can take place, struggles must come and the old demons will 
be recalled for new service. 

The demonization of diseases is not wonderful. To 
thoughtful minds not even science has dispelled the mystery 
of disease and liability to contagion. A genuine observation 
by primitive man is bound to suggest a connection between 
diseases and unseen influences. 

In the legend of Harischandra, martyr to truth, the Indian 
prototype of Job, not the least of the martyr's trials was the 
attack upon him by a great horde of demons in the desert. 

In the time of Paul the dark problem of the origin of evil 
and its continuance in the universe still threw its impen- 
etrable shadow across the human mind. It was a terrible 
reality. 

Eabbinical lore had repeated again and again that in the 
beginning, Samael (identical with Abaddon), was the fiery 
serpent; Lilith (identical with Astarte), the crooked serpent, 
and from their union were born Leviathan, Asmodeus, and 
all other evil influences. 

But no ancient writing gives a theory or explanation of 
of the origin of evil. Although the Assyrians and Jews both 
believed that there was a revolt in heaven, we find no ade- 
quate intimation of the motive by which the rebels were 
actuated. The theory which Milton has made so familiar; 
that Lucifer aspired to take the place of Jehovah, must, how- 
ever, have been popular in the time of Isaiah. 

It seems that this writer agrees in the last analy- 
sis with scientists and philosophers generally. 

28 



The devils are the personifications of the will 
to live in any form, unadvanced, who first in 
heaven fought a great battle against the will to 
LIVE IN ADVANCED FOKMS^ and Were cast out to the 
Earth, where they oppose man — because man is 
capable of advancement — redemption — and even- 
tual glorification, whereas the personification of 
the will to live in unadvanced form can never rise ; 
hence the significance of the curse to the garden of 
Eden tempter: ^^On thy belly shalt thou go," 
forever. 

The dismal conditions now between nations, he adds, 
(writing in the 70s), seem to have so little root in political 
necessity that even now one might dream that the subtle 
INFLUENCE comcs from the red planet Mars that has ap- 
proached the earth. 

In Gnosticism, some explanation of the existence of evil 
INFLUENCES is attempted. In the beginning existed Bythos 
(the Depth) ; his first emanation and consort was Eunoia 
(Thought) ; their first daughter is Spirit, their second Wis- 
dom. Wisdom's emanations are two— one ''Ideal," the 
other ''Material." 

Here again we have the two opposing forces, the 
Ideal, looking toward advancement and develop- 
ment, and the Material, looking toward the per- 
petuation of unadvanced forms. 

These two forces the Gnostics personified as Christ and 
the World. After the Material goddess had created the Earth, 
Wisdom, the mother of the Ideal, transferred to man a ray 
of that divine light. 

The Material Will, finding that man had the divine spark 
impossible for the Material spirit to obtain, became enraged 
with a terrible envy and took form as a serpent, and the 
name of Samael. And by magical power imprisoned mankind 
in the dungeon of Matter,^ from the woes of which he can 
only be freed by the Ideal or Christ. 

The Material will, was to Paul, "the Prince of the Power 
of the Air," and it is not wonderful that the ancients should 
have ascribed to a diabolical source the subtle deaths that 
struck at them from the air. The Tyndalls of a primitive 
time studied dust and disease, and called the winged seeds of 
decay and death "aerial devils," and prepared the way for 
Mephistopheles (devil of smells), as he in his turn for the 
bacterial demon of modern science. 

A Mussulman legend says that the demon Iblis asked 
Allah how he should contend with man, and he was answered, 

29 



"Thy progeny shall be more numerous than his — for every 
man that is born there shall come into the world seven evil 
spirits. ' ' 

The Asmodeus spirits represent the pride of life and jeal- 
ousy and revenge. 

The demon Mammon appeared to King Radbot in the days 
of St. Wolfram, and offered to lead him to a house of solid 
gold. The demon, disguised as a traveler, led the way to a 
house of gold "of incredible size and splendor." 

As soon as they went in, the house vanished, and the 
party found itself in a dismal swamp, from which it took 
them three days to extricate themselves. 

The INFLUENCE called Mammon, ever has lured 
man on and ever disappointed him. 

Asmodeus, Conway goes on to say, was chained for a time 
by Solomon, through his knowledge of the supreme spell, or 
real name of God. At the time the demon was chained he 
had drunk some wine. Now this very demon had been the 
one to make wine intoxicating, for he had slaughtered in the 
first vineyard a sheep, a lion and a hog, with the result that 
the wine when drunk first gave the drinker the quality of a 
sheep, then that of a lion, and finally that of a hog. 

Solomon in his pride afterwards boasted that he could 
overcome the demon even without the ring containing the 
secret name, and took off Asmodeus' chains for the trial. 
The demon instantly transported Solomon to a place four 
hundred miles away, to the Court of Naomah and Rahab, 
where he remained for a long while. Meantime Asmodeus, 
assuming the form of Solomon, sat on his throne. 

As to the demon, Satan, this writer says : 

"Beastliness is not a character of beasts; it is the arrest 
of man." It is not the picturesque donkey in the meadow 
that is ridiculous, but the donkey on two feet; not the bear 
of zoological gardens that is morally offensive, l3ut the rough, 
who cannot always be caged. The scientists' theory of the 
law of evolution presents the same solution of evil as the 
ancients knew under the name of demonology. 

The pride of the peacock, the wrath of the lion, beautiful 
in their appropriate forms, became, in the guise of a man 
uncontrolled by reason, the vices, which used to be called 
possession, and really are insanities. 

No monster ever conjured up by imagination is more 
hideous than a rational being transformed to a beast. 

Some scholars who listen to sweet vespers may think the 
conflict is over; if so, they can learn that "men are pos- 
sessed of devils just as much now as they ever were. ' * 

The ethnical origin of the nightmare was the demon mare 
(Mara) of Scandinavia, and in ancient Ceylon we find a 
demoness "having the form and countenance of a mare." 

30 



E. A. Wallis Budge, in a large number of ex- 
pensive illustrated volumes on Egyptology, traces 
the effect on that ancient race of the intlue:>^ces 
to which the Egyptians felt subject. 

The spirit or spirits opposing the advancement of the 
human race, being the real demons, it would naturally follow 
that the gods of one age should seem the devils of succeed- 
ing times. Thus Hathor, worshipped by the Egyptians from 
the earliest dawn of history, was at first clothed with all the 
virtues of the patient cow, but afterwards became the queen 
of Hades and identified with Venus or Astarte. 

The same process is seen in the serpent, which was wor- 
shipped by the Egyptians as the god of wisdom, ages before 
it came to be regarded as the form of the archfiend Satan. 

Isis was at first a divine goddess, but afterwards became 
a witch or sorceress and dealt in poisons. She created a 
snake to bite the god Ra so that she might learn his secret 
name which was a word of power. 

The oldest spirit known to the Egyptians was by them 
called Apep the storm demon, and perhaps the oldest papy- 
rus in existence is the "Book of Overthrowing Apep." To 
do this, according to the papyrus, one had to recite the 
demon's secret names of which seventeen are given. 

A princess, having been taken ill, it was felt that she was 
possessed of a demon; when one who knew the words of 
power approached for the purpose of exorcising it, the 
demon acknowledged its defeat in advance and promised to 
depart, asking as a favor that it might afterwards join at a 
dinner or feast, the exorcisor idealist. The demon who pos- 
sessed the princess recognized in Khonsu a being who was 
mightier than himself, and, like a vanquished King, he 
wished to be on good terms with his conqueror. 



William Carlisle, in a book printed in London 
in 1827, on ^^Evil Spirits," and of which there is 
a copy at the British Museum, recognizes all the 
kinds of evil influences that oppress mankind. 

As scientists, by the aid of microscopes, have discovered 
to us vast tribes of insects which before were totally un- 
known to us, so Revelation discovers to us myriads of spirits 
— enemies more powerful ''than flesh and blood." 

The book is a very learned and logical work 
based throughout on the Bible, and showing con- 
clusively that the demons, or spirits, or, as we 
would call them, iNFLrENCES^, on the one hand, and 
the redemption from their power, on the other, is 

31 



the whole theory, plan and completeness of the 
salvation of, and taught in, the Holy Scriptures. 

The oldest known clay tablet from the ancient 
ruins of Mneveh, now to be seen at the British 
Museum, is marked with characters which have 
been translated: 

^'I who am smitten with disease, whom the hand of the 
demon . . . " (here the surface is broken.) 

*'The spectre that strike th fear, that for many days has 
been bound on my back and is not loosed, who attacks my 
face, my eyes, my back, my flesh and my whole body."* 



A book published at the price of $25.00, entitled 
the Divine Mystery, by R. Swinburne Clymer, 
may be seen at the Congressional Library at 
Washington. It paraphrases a Roman Catholic 
promulgation by Father Sinistrari, entitled, "De- 
moniality." 

Elemental spirits suck the vitality of those who are weak 
and especially of drunkards. It has often been observed that 
drunkards' lives are the safest from accidents; this is be- 
cause the Elementals take care of them, and preserve them 
in dangers, in order that they may continue to draw their 
vitality from them. When they have accomplished their 
purpose and drawn all the vitality out of their victims, the 
drunkards die, not so much from any pathological reason, as 
from spiritual depletion. 

This is the reason it is so hard for a drunkard to reform; 
there is always "something" urging him to drink. 

Clymer divides the spirits into four kinds: 
Sylphs, Gnomes, Undines and Salamanders. These 
Elementals derive their names from the four ele- 
ments, air, earth, water, and fire. ^'The throne 
of Paralda, Queen of the Sylphs, is to the East; 
of Gob, Prince of the Gnomes, to the North; of 
Nicksa, Princess of Undines, to the West, and 
of Djin, King of Salamanders, to the South." 

In George Rawlinson's famous notes upon 
Herodotus, he assures us, at page 188, that the 
Delphic Oracle was in reality possessed of an evil 
spirit, the demon of deceit, leading Croesus to 
make war on Cyrus on purpose to lead him to his 
own destruction. 

♦"Babylonian Cuneiform Texts" by Leonard W. King. 
i 32 

V 



CHAPTER IV. 



FALSE AND SLANDERING INFLUENCES. 



The mortal finds himself in a world of sunshine 
and flowers. He finds himself conscious of his 
great destiny. He feels himself able, if left alone, 
to work out that destiny and stand on his own 
feet, serene and perfect. 

But, though he knows that there is, or should 
be, a perfect system of things, wherein he has his 
perfect place, ^^ something" prevents him from its 
attainment. 

The reader may be one of those who start out on 
the highway of life with high hopes and exalted 
spirits, only to find that on every hand there exists 
a conspiracy against him, as it were, — a conspiracy 
of slandering thoughts and false estimates. With 
his high standard rebuffed at every turn and false 
standards flaunted in his face, he can no longer 
stand untouched and uninfluenced, but dreads 
what every day may bring, and every day, finds 
such dread more than justified. 

A strong sense of justice and right is born in 
such an one, a gift highly desirable and supremely 
valuable. Yet his very gift becomes the prey of 
INFLUENCES^ and makes the victim more suscept- 

33 



ible to the injury brought about by these intlu- 
e:n^ces^ and more bitterly wronged than he could 
be, if he had never had that fine sense of justice 
and right. 

The iiSTLUENCES make his very words appear to 
others as unworthy of himself and as suggesting 
thoughts he never would have entertained. False 
standards of life are brought about by the intlu- 
EJS^CES^ formerly known as ^^false gods/' a differ- 
ent INFLUENCE f or cach false standard. The Slan- 
dering INFLUENCES are closely allied, for they 
slander the sense of right by intimating that the 
victim has those particular false standards which 
he hates the most. 

The reader if troubled by such influences in his 
life, will, upon occasion, find his friend, perhaps 
his dearest friend, unaccountably cold. A shadow 
comes between friend and friend, between brother 
and brother, and. even between man and wife. 
That dear friend, or brother, or husband, all at 
once seems to believe your motives are alien to 
him; the cloud settles down between you, and the 
INFLUENCE triumphs. Again, even strangers will, 
when this influence is upon you, look suspiciously 
at you, and you feel like a pariah and outcast. 

These influences, which for convenience we 
may call Beelzebub and ApoUyon influences, 
have driven many men to insanity and suicide. 



34 



CHAPTER V. 



INFLUENCES OF MALICE^ ANGER AND EEVENGE. 



Our fathers, when they felt caught in an atmos- 
phere where anger was created spontaneously in 
the hearts of men, and where mischief against 
them seemed to be in the very air, called that ob- 
session by the name of the demon Belial. 

Similarly, when malice and revenge surrounded 
them, permeating the expression of their lives and 
mercilessly threatening the very existence of their 
souls, the power under which they were so victim- 
ized was called Asmodeus. 

For the purposes of classification we may still 
call these influences the Belial and Asmodeus 
influences. 

That their power on earth has not diminished, 
everyone will agree. To some victims, it seems as 
though a mysterious influence were stirring up 
mischief. And those suffering from the malice, or 
so-called ^* malicious animal magnetism,'' of the 
Asmodeus influence are numerous. 

These influences cannot be conquered merely 
by good intentions. It is not necessary to read the 
personal history of every person whose history has 
been written, or of any one of them, to realize 
that the human, treading the pathway of life, with 

35 



the best and most noble intentions, however con- 
scions of his own internal honesty, always meets 
and is always wounded by, these almost omni- 
present, though inferior powers. 

For deliverance from angry and malicious in- 
fluences many have laid down their lives, and to 
be subject to those influences^ unless help can be 
obtained, is worse than death. 

Anger, mischief, malice and revenge so sur- 
round man, that he, in turn, absorbs those influ- 
ences in his soul, and becomes their servant and 
tool. If a man's life has been thwarted by these 
influences, so that at last their nature has en- 
tered into him, and he has become a medium or 
expression of that same malice, anger, mischief 
and revenge, his very soul has become tainted. 
Such an one is more to be pitied than blamed, — ^it 
is more his misfortune than his fault. This is the 
great misfortune indeed ! To lose the life of your 
body is bad, but to lose the life of your soul is 
worse. By the same reasoning it would seem a 
greater risk, to reject the help held out to save 
you from this danger, than it would be to refuse 
to wear a pair of strong boots if you were walking 
in jungle-grass full of deadly snakes. 

The INFLUENCES are worse than any physical 
snakes. Their venom is poison to your career and 
opportunities, as well as to your physical life and 
to your very soul. The air is full of currents of 
malice all around you, circling round and round, 
more poisonous than any spider weaving her web, 
like a spell. These influences are always invent- 
ing causes of hatred and revenge, marking you as 
their victim. 

Will you struggle against these influences with 
the unaided force of your own good intentions? 
Will you trample the poisonous jungle with bare 
feet? Conscious of your own honesty, will you 
meet the malicious, angry, revenging influences, 
that know no mercy or scruple, without the only 
power which can overcome them? 

36 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE INFLTJENCE OF THE BEAST. 



Once, when men were obsessed by a feeling 
within, like the spirit of a beast, whether wolf, 
snake, dog or pig, such an obsession was ascribed 
to ^^ Satan" and his dark horde of devils. 

'^ Satan" was the name given to that particular 
kind of demon which made man bestial, and for 
convenience we may still refer to that influence 
as Satanic. 

When our ancestors became obsessed with de- 
grading thoughts, through no fault of their own, 
but by this terrible influence^ they felt that they 
had fallen into the power of Satan. 

(a) Now, a dog may be, and frequently is, a 
respectable member of the animal kingdom. But 
a man, so possessed of this influence^ and so cast 
down from his estate as a man, that he is a dog, is 
a mongrel cur, unfit for the society of young 
people, full of foul nastiness. His spiritual man- 
hood is attacked by this influence^ and if he suc- 
cumbs, it will be lost ; then his spiritual condition 
will be gradually made manifest in his body, and 
the work of the influence will be complete. 

It is not necessary to elaborate an unpleasant 

37 



subject, except to say that tMs is the greatest 
disaster the ordinary mind can imagine. The 
mind despises that condition, with such a repul- 
sion, that to be called a son of a dog, male or 
female, has always been felt the bitterest epithet 
possible. 

Certainly to a man, no worse fate can be thought 
of, than to lose his manhood, spiritually, mentally, 
integrally, determinately or physically. 

(b) This IKPLTJENCE is also felt by those who 
become imbued with a wolfish or snarling habit, 
or who meet such expressions in others. Lycan- 
thropia still exists, more subtle and secret than 
ever, but still snarling and growling at us through 
those who are possessed with a lust to take from 
us all that we have and to even take the right to 
live at all. 

(c) The USTFLTJENCE sometimes surrounds a girl 
or young woman, appearing to be felt by her as a 
*^ cattish" or feline force. Spiritually the cat is 
the symbol of spinsterhood. There are many 
places where this intltjexce is felt to such a 
degree that all the girls become ^'old maids," 
through no fault of their own, and in spite of 
having winsome and desirable characters. Some- 
times a girl can break the spell by going away 
from that place, but usually the influei^ce pur- 
sues her and may so fasten on the heart as to make 
her cattish or oldmaidish in character. Then, 
even if the influence can be overcome enough to 
permit of marriage, she remains an ^*old maid" 
in character, and such are called the worst kind. 

(d) The mule is a symbol, not only of stub- 
bornness, but also of sterility. IN'ot every one feels 
this INFLTJENCE as sterility, but over some its 
power is supreme. One who feels that life's object 
is lost if she has no child, is sometimes so en- 
tangled by this INFLUENCE that her hope becomes 
hopeless and her desire turns to despair. Then, 
when life is void to her, the influence whispers 
that it is her own fault, and that she is worthless 

38 



and should commit suicide. Dear Sister, do not 
believe it. Satan was a liar from the beginning. 
All will be well when you are relieved from his 
power ! 

Again, when we find the world unaccountably 
stubborn around us, it is this influence of the 
beast, injecting that mulish spirit, like poison, into 
the air. 

(e) The loyalty of those we love or who smile 
upon us to our faces, could be forever depended 
upon in a world free of the treacherous influence^ 
symbolized by the snake. But that is not this 
world, as everyone knows. We were constituted 
for that world, more than for this one, or we 
would not again and again, believe and believe 
still again what people say to us — or that they are 
working in our interests, even after we find out 
by bitter experience, over and over, that we so 
make ourselves liable to disappointment. 

Do not blame your friend who turns against 
you. He is possessed of this influence and can- 
not help it. Nor can you, in your own strength, 
help him. Only the christpowek can make him 
free, when he will be your own loving friend 
again. In such a case, as far only as his treachery 
toward you is concerned, you can accept the 
CHRISTPOWEK for him, as we shall see on another 
page. The folk lores of many different races 
show that a snakish influence has been almost 
universally felt, and primitive hymns voice the 
belief caused by that feeling, for instance : 

"Or Satan, he's a snake in the grass, 
^'Yes, my Lord!" 

This snake spirit is the most insidious form of 
this INFLUENCE. Entering into a husband or wife 
it disturbs the oneness of that relationship, by 
first diverging the thoughts, then creating aims 
in the breasts of each, which the other does not 
share, and finally creating a positive disloyalty, 
which, if not cast out, inevitably ends in a dis- 

39 



solution of the marriage, whether made physical 
by divorce or annulment, or not. 

The INFLUENCES which come with bestial sug- 
gestions are many, and bring a man to the preci- 
pice, over which, if not saved, he will be thrust. 
There lie broken friendships, ruined lives, and 
blighted hopes! 

(f) The spirit of swine, or the ikfltjence of 
hoggishness is a terribly alive force in the world. 
You may feel that your work is good and useful, 
but vou are surrounded by hogs who ^^ swill everv- 
thing." 

Dear Brother, beware of this influence^ for it 
will deny you the right to exist. It will monopo- 
lize everything you should have. It will take away 
the benefit of all your opportunities and leave you 
in the mire. Call it by any name you will, Satan, 
the Beast, or the spirit of evil, its real existence 
as the INTLTJENCE of hoggishness, cannot be denied. 
It does not hide insidiously, as other influences 
do, nor is it subtle as others are. It is terribly 
blatant — Satan sitting in the high places of the 
Earth — and actually boasting of his cloven hoof ! 

You are being openly and brazenly squeezed to 
death! Your own efforts can only feed the swine 
more, for you are not in a physical net, but a 
spiritual one. To be free, it is not more knowledge 
or more physical strength that you need, it is the 

CHRISTPOWER ! 

Nothing else can avail you but that power, and 
by the acceptance of that power you can be free ! 

(g) Idiocy and every kind of foolishness come 
from the beast influence. If your child or any 
loved one seems to be dull of comprehension, or 
inconsequential, exciting the suggestion in others 
that he is a '^ goose" or ^^ donkey" or that he is 
*^ asinine," do not blame or punish him. He is the 
greatest sufferer himself from the influence 
which obsesses him. The goose is the symbol of 
silliness and the ass of foolish endeavors. Some 
are so contrarily foolish, that the more you try to 

40 



teach them the less they learn. No use to provide 
tuition, books, rules and regulations for such; the 
iNTLUEJsrcE cannot be exorcised in that way. 

(h) Corpulence is another phase of this influ- 
ence. But here a distinction must be drawn be- 
tween that which is natural and beautiful and that 
which is unsightly and deforming. Natural plump- 
ness, especially in children, cannot properly be 
called corpulence. Yet this influence attacks the 
mind with its suggestion that the body has too 
much adipose tissue, even when, without such an 
attack, the same degree of plumpness would not be 
considered excessive. Such an attack on the mind 
must be repulsed first, before the bodily condition 
can be improved, and vdthout the christpower 
it is impossible to withstand and repulse that 
attack, and cast out the demon of corpulence. 



There is a kingdom of bestial influences anal- 
ogous to the ordinary, harmless, beautiful animal 
kingdom. But how different! Where a bird or 
quadruped is wonderful in its beauty or sagacity, 
the INFLUENCE^ Selecting its own most degrading 
aspect, names it after that animal. 

No wonder our fathers called this influence 
by the worst name they could find — Satan. 



41 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE INFLUENCES ATTACKING HEALTH, 



The Science of medicine, so called, has made 
wonderful strides in late years, and advanced from 
a stage where cathartics administered to, and 
blood taken from, the patient, comprised the whole 
prescription for every imaginable sickness or 
disease. 

Scientists are gradually proving, to their own 
satisfaction, that certain diseases are caused by 
* ^ germs, '^ i. e., alive things, so small as to be 
invisible in the strongest microscope, which they 
judge must necessarily be present, for they can 
find no other *^ rational" explanation of the 
diseases that afflict mankind. 

Whether the scientist calls the ^^ disease," small- 
pox or scarlet-fever or measles or whooping cough 
or mumps or leprosy, the '^germ" is his theory. 
No one has ever seen any ^^ germs" of those 
diseases, they simply figure out that the influ- 
ences felt must come from something alive, hence 
the theory of ^^ germs." 

It is true that in certain other diseases, such as 
malaria, tiny forms can be seen by the aid of a 
strong microscope. But the scientists claim that 

42 



these forms are not the ^^ germs" themselves, but 
^^baccilli," that is, animals who are themselves 
afflicted with ^^ germs." 

For twenty years of history these unseen terrors 
have been called ^^ germs," but for more than 4000 
years prior to that time they have been called 
*^ demons." Whether our fathers were right in 
the word they used for 4000 years, or modern 
scientists are right in the word they have used for 
twenty years, is a matter of definition only. Our 
fathers felt the influence of such things and 
called it by the name of the demon Meresin. 

To them Meresin, with his multitude of evil 
spirits, was a reality, because the diseases caused 
by the so-called ^^ germs" actually afflicted them. 
Let us not quarrel about the definition of a word, 
when we are confronted with a terrible reality, 
such as a disease or disability in ourselves or loved 
ones. You who feel that your affliction is caused 
by ^^ Meresin," and you who attribute it to ^^ earth 
spirits," and you who call it ^^ malicious animal 
magnetism," and you who say it is but a ^^germ," 
all mean the same thing, namely, that influence^ 
cast upon life, which causes the ^^ claim" of pain 
and sickness. This being understood, we may, for 
the purpose of definition, call such influence in 
general by the name of Meresin. 

These Meresin influences come in many forms, 
which may be for our purpose divided into : 

(a) Fevers, or influences which seek to in- 
crease the usual rate at which the blood flows, and 
at which all the functions of the body proceed ; 

(b) Constipations and colds, or influences 
which retard the life of the body and diminish the 
normal action of life in any way ; 

(c) Congestions, or influences disturbing the 
normal distribution through the body of its blood 
and its life, frequently combining a feverish in- 
fluence in one part of the body, with a retarding 
influence in another. 

(d) Pain; which is a separate influence from 

43 



all the others, though they all lead to conditions 
where this iNFLiJEisrcE can enter in. 

(e) Depression of Spirits, Scientists say that 
if you have the ^^ blues" your liver or some other 
organ is to blame. A '^germ" has got into it, they 
say, which, although lodged for instance in the 
liver, affects the mind and brain. They are not 
able to explain why a ^^germ" can attack one place 
and thereby cause disturbance in a totally dif- 
ferent place. 

(f ) Weakness, This influence saps the vital- 
ity of some part, or of the whole man. Children's 
bad habits of every kind are mere weaknesses. 
The drink habit is a weakness. Deafness, eye- 
strain, etc., are weaknesses. It is not natural or 
normal to be weak in any particular. After count- 
less years of development, man's body is naturally 
and normally perfect in its own strength, and but 
for the INFLUENCES^ would never feel any weak- 
ness, so-called, or insufficiency of strength to meet 
and bravely face and overcome any and every 
condition. Our fathers classified this branch of 
the Meresin influence as Vampirish, because the 
weakness caused thereby resembles an actual loss 
of blood and of vitality. 



Whatever theory may be urged by scientists, 
physicians or others, as to the intrinsic cause of 
pain, they all agree that the attitude of the 
patient's mind has at least something to do with it. 

Some scientists claim that their medicines have 
certain effects only because it is the mental atti- 
tude of the world that such medicines actually 
have such effects. Others offer no explanation 
whatever, but still say that the medicine, to be 
most ^^ effective," must be taken while the patient 
is in a cheerful and hopeful frame of mind. 

So all agree that there is ^ ^mind-stuff" in 
disease and pain — even those who claim that there 
is ** matter" or ^^ material substance" therein. But 
all classes of scientists admit that they do not 

44 



know the nature either of ** mind-stuff '' or of 
** matter," so the controversy is wholly academic. 

We do not have to decide between, or pin our 
faith to either, of the contentions of the present 
day, as to the intrinsic nature of mind, matter, 
disease, pain or weakness. What the name or 
fundamental nature of the influence may be, does 
not cause or prevent its power over us, nor invite 
it in nor drive it out. What we actually feel, need 
not be given this name or that name. It is there ; 
we feel it to be alive; we know its power over us 
by actual experience and not by theory ; and many 
know how helpless it is to struggle against it — 
without the christpower. 

The most terrible visitation of this inflijence 
is when it attacks childhood. It shocks the senses 
and ideals of the mind to see a child suffer. When 
a fond parent or sister has to stand by, unable to 
battle against the terrible influence attacking the 
little one, it seems as if hope itself is going out, 
like as if darkness blotted out the sky at midday! 

If a little one suffers, the one who loves it suf- 
fers too, and that one may, for the little one, 
accept the christpower. 



(g) Childlessness is a kind of suffering from 
this INFLUENCE. It sccms that in cases where body 
and brain are developed to the highest and noblest 
and strongest degree, where many influences 
have been conquered and one would say, '^Here is 
a perfect specimen," an influence of childless- 
ness, the enemy of our race, creeps in, to make 
that high development of no effect for the future. 

No man can satisfactorily explain to others why 
there should be, or how there came to be, such an 
INFLUENCE^ that could be called the ^^ enemy of our 



race." 



As stated in Chapter I, materialists might say 
that there always was the same quantity of matter 
and nothing else, that this *^ matter" was first in 
the form of gas, then by ^^ attraction" (and they 



45 



cannot explain what they mean by that word) the 
gas became subject to the pressure of its own 
weight, and so became liquid, and finally solid. 
That the gas had a ''will to exist in any form," 
and when it became liquid, it experienced an ''ad- 
vancement" and so developed another will, slightly 
at variance with the first will, namely, a "will to 
exist in advanced forms." These two wills, they 
say, have been at variance and fighting ever since 
— and because the "will to live in advanced form" 
is opposed to that part of the "will to exist in any 
form" which would perpetuate the life of what we 
call low, cruel, and base, and since there are many 
expressions of each will, it follows that certain 
expressions of the "will to live in any form, e. g., 
basely and bestially," seek occasion to attack that 
which would advance. Therefore, they may be 
termed enemies of our race. 

This explanation does not go far enough to 
satisfy anybody, nor could it be possible for mate- 
rial scientists to formulate a theory that would, 
for the reason that the truth is only partly re- 
vealed to them and only partly explainable to man. 

If the sacred secret in its entirety were reserved 
until man is ready to hear, it yet appears that the 
scientists recognize the influences^ but here call 
them "Expressions of the will to live in base 
forms. ' ' 

This volume is not for the purpose of disputing 
terms or urging one word or name over another. 
Enough that all men recognize and feel the influ- 
ences^ no matter what name they call them. 



46 



CHAPTER VIII. 



THE INFLXJENCES CAUSING STRIFE. 



Under this head we may properly consider wars 
between nations, litigation between individuals, 
bad temper, estrangements, misunderstandings of 
every kind. 

It is evident that no two people would waste 
their time and substance in a fight of any kind, 
unless some feeling made their respective points 
of view divergent. 

There are two ways in which points of view may 
be so radically divergent as to cause strife ; (a) as 
to justice and right ; (b) as to the expected result 
of the fight. 

It is conceivable that two might fight for a prize, 
independent of any difference of opinion as to 
what was just and right. It is also conceivable 
that in the face of certain defeat one might fight 
for what he believed to be just and right. 

But nearly all fights result from the double ob- 
session, i. e., each side is obsessed with the idea 
that he is in the right, and also obsessed with the 
idea that the result of the fight will be an advan- 
tage to him. 

These feelings, or obsessions, are caused by some 

47 



IKPLUENCES wMch Seem to delight in stirring up 
strife. Our fathers called these influences 
*^ Abaddon." They recognized the cruel power of 
such, and many writers have declared wars to be 
brought about by fate, so powerful did they deem 
these INFLUENCES to be. 

Never, before the application of the christ- 
powER^ have any of these influences;, or strife 
demons, been conquered. They work in sets, fre- 
quently putting brother against brother, parent 
against child, and even husband against wife. 

It is easy to recognize the strife obsession, espe- 
cially in another. Antagonism is so contrary to 
the ordinary dictates of the human heart that its 
appearance toward yourself is a shock hard to 
bear. Yet the person so obsessed is more to be 
pitied than blamed. Ordinarily, the human heart 
would be kind and loving. Obsessed with this in- 
fluence^ it becomes a foe instead of a friend. 



48 



CHAPTER IX. 



THE INFLUENCE CAUSING SELF- ACCUSATION. 



Seventh on the list of influences^ classified in 
olden days, was the troop of /'demons who drove 
men to despair" by entering into the heart and 
infusing therein a false spirit of self-accusation, 
self-depreciation, self-centered hopelessness, re- 
morse for real or fancied mistakes and grovelling 
failure. 

. While few are entirely free from this influ- 
ence, a great many do not feel its power to the 
verge of despair, and are able, in their own 
strength, to disregard it for a season. 

But to some, this Diabolis influence, as we 
may call it, is so real and oppressive that they feel 
they will be driven to suicide, if relief does not 
come. 

No one, who has not felt it, can understand the 
real pain of the so-called ''blues." 

This INFLUENCE may, as yet, only have a slight 
hold on you, and you iriay only have a slight attack 
of despondency. Its usual way is to visit but 
gently at first, gradually increasing in violence, 
bringing on at last hysterical fits of accelerating 
intensity. 

When oppressed by this influence, the world 

49 



seems black, your best beloved seems disloyal and 
you seem to be sinking down into the depths of 
woe. 

Then it leaves you for a while, but soon returns, 
often seeming to return exactly with the moon's 
phases — thus, if it is a full moon when the ^ 'blues" 
take you, look out for the next full moon. And 
at whatever phase of the moon you are attacked, 
look out for the same thing at the same phase of 
the moon. 

Scientists have tried to discover why this influ- 
ence should seem to be affected by the moon, and 
have failed to establish any scientific connection 
between despondency and the moon. They say 
that the fact that the phases of the moon were 
important in ancient witchcraft, and the fact that 
the moon seems even to make dogs howl, must 
remain forever unexplained. 

However that may be, and whether or not the 
INFLUENCES of dcspondency even know that there 
is a moon, the fact remains, as anyone can observe 
for himself, by keeping a diary of other people's 
'^ blues," that they often return, however slightly, 
with the exact regularity of the moon. 

This INFLUENCE is a reality of such threatening 
aspect, that the proudest and strongest may well 
fear it. An enemy who does not storm the citadel 
from without, is the more to be feared. An insid- 
ious, sneaking enemy, who enters the very heart 
of you, and pretends to be you, with the lie that 
it is you, — you accusing yourself — ^this influence 
cannot be thrown out or cast down by your own 
strength. 

It turns your mind inward upon habits or weak- 
nesses or undeveloped spots, and broods upon 
them, accusing you of human weaknesses as 
though they were the grossest of crimes. 

Black as the hell-cat it is, it assumes the robe 
of an angel of light, and tortures the soul by pre- 
tending to be that sacred monitor. Conscience, 
'^ deceiving even the elect!" 

50 



CHAPTER X. 



MAMMON. 



One's own experience teaches that there is some 
subtle INFLUENCE about money. 

It is not the money itself which is the root of 
evil but a strange and almost uncanny feeling 
about it, which enters into the nature of a man, 
transforming him from being the center and 
source of all supply, into a clutching miser. 

Strange as it may seem until we give the mat- 
ter real thought, it is not the rich of this world 
who are the victims of this influence. They who 
do not want for money are free from this influ- 
ence^ and they who do want, are oppressed by it. 

This is not to say that the rich are better than 
the would-be-rich. Far from it; other terrible 
influences oppress them; but it is certain that 
they are better off as regards this particular in- 
fluence. They who do not want for money are 
free from the demon Mammon. 

This message cannot come to one not ready to 
receive it. Such an one may have this influence 
seated in his high will. This demon does not 
attract gold to its victims, because of its nature, 
as more particularly referred to elsewhere. This 

51 



INFLUENCE keeps gold away, yet clings so con- 
vulsively to what gold one has, as to prevent any 
acceptance of the christpower by giving it up. 

If such an one has read thus far, he has, from 
his point of view, been done a great injury by this 
message. For it is inevitable that he must choose 
either to pamper the influence — Mammon — or to 
accept the christpower ; if he cannot or will not do 
the latter, it is certain that the influence will set 
itself against him, and will inevitably banish from 
that man the gold itself — and never shall he have 
his heart's desire as long as gold is his God! 

Those who make sacrifice of the false god, who 
humbly come to the christpower^ and accept, can 
be placed on a new and different basis as to money 
— a basis different from any they have ever before 
experienced. 

Yes ! By that wonderful christpower, I say in 
all humility and reverence, the influence which 
makes the ^'will-o'-the-wisp," teasing, calling, yet 
vanishing, effect, ever luring but never realizable, 
can be forever banished. This influence desires 
to be worshipped much in little gold — ye who are 
subject the most to this baneful influence, have 
the least, but will find it the hardest to accept and 
sacrifice ; yet if ye do accept, the christpower can 
make you free ! 

To realize what freedom from the spirit of Man- 
mon means, is to realize the most radical reversal 
of former standards. One who has hitherto, by 
reason of that influence, always failed to get 
'* enough money" and has had to be close and econ- 
omical at the best of times, suddenly finds himself, 
as it were, at the center of all supply. 

This influence is the curse of poverty and 
want, the ''wolf at the door." This is he who 
drives men from "hand to mouth," ever keeping 
them under, and dependent upon circumstances. 
This is not gold, but the want of it ; the demon who 
dangles the gold in front of your eyes, drawing it 
ever backward to lure you into the abyss. 

52 



CHAPTER XI. 



SORROW a:n^d disappointment. 



As we examine nature, observing the so-called 
lower forms, and so ^^ upward," in the scale of 
development, we see that there is a point where 
even some animals become more affected by sor- 
row and disappointment than by pain. 

Without praising any animal, or suggesting a 
usefulness, which it does not exhibit, there yet 
must be conceded to be well authenticated in- 
stances where horses and dogs have grieved to 
death over the loss of their two-footed masters. 

So man, highly organized, of sensitive and 
finely-poised nature, early discovered that he 
could be more severely affected by sorrow and dis- 
appointment, than by the most excruciating physi- 
cal agony. 

Waves and waves of sorrow have passed over 
the race long, long ago. This was one of the first 
of the INFLUENCES to be felt, and men tried to 
propitiate it by setting up its image as a god, to 
whom children were sacrificed by being burnt 
alive. 

Moloch, the name of horror, was the name given 
the Prince of the sorrow demons. 

That this influence is very much alive to-day 

53 



no one will deny. Call it what you will, the fact 
remains that the heart is attacked by influences^ 
as much as the body. 

Impending misfortune vanishes when this in- 
fluence is cast out. 

This INFLUENCE brings all sorts of calamity 
upon you; it bereaves you, it disappoints you at 
every turn. Everything may be going smoothly, 
hopes for the future springing high in your breast, 
those you love a constant joy, and no cloud in 
sight, when suddenly the blow falls. 

Man in his arrogance, sometimes thinks he is the 
whole universe, and that no spirits exist except 
himself. Serene in that confidence, he anticipates 
no disaster, but takes his mental ease, never 
dreaming of the insidious foe. ISTot warned by 
past experiences of trouble and sorrow coming 
suddenly, he is all unprepared to meet the disaster. 

Bereaved, or smitten with vital physical in- 
firmity, or arrested and cast into prison, or de- 
spoiled of all, or cheated by trusted friend, like 
lightning out of a clear sky, this influence at- 
tacks you. 

There are men who are kept alive by their hopes 
and ambitions. In the hour of disappointment 
these die of a broken heart or commit suicide. 

This INFLUENCE^ pretending to lead men into 
light, brings them into the darkness of despair. 
The heavens seem closed to prayers. Such men 
are hedged in by bitterness, as with heavy chains. 
They become disorganized, do not seem themselves, 
seem as if pulled in pieces. 

When attacked by this influence^ men wish 
they had never been born, and crave for death to 
relieve their misery. Then one says with Job : 

11. Why died I not, . . . 

13. For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I 
should have slept: then had I been at rest. 

17. There the wicked cease from troubling ; and there the 
weary be at rest. 

20. Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and 
life unto the bitter in soul; 

54 



21. Which long for death, but it cometh not; 

25. For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon 
me; 

26. I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was T 
quiet; yet trouble came.— Job III: 11, 13, 17, 20, 21, 25, 26. 

The height of joy and perfect freedom are so 
far removed from sorrow and despair, that though 
I point earnestly and knowingly to that Height, 
one in the depth cannot perfectly receive the 
message. 

To cast out of your life such an influence^ is 
more than to save your physical life — to save only 
that life would be no benefit to one who longed for 
death, — it is to place your feet on the mountain! 



55 



CHAPTER XII. 



INJUSTICE. 



Those who have been thus far sheltered from 
the world, and not attacked by the i:N'rLTJEN'CE in 
this chapter referred to, can have no conception 
or understanding of the feelings of those who are 
the victims of injustice. 

The terrors willingly braved, for the sake of 
justice, by the heroes of history, are unreal to 
those who have not experienced injustice. 

Yet in each there is, deep down, such a resist- 
ance to injustice, that if he does become its victim, 
a new side to his character appears, and all his 
desires merge into one, — that he have justice! 

Our fathers recognized that injustice comes 
from an influence^ which to them was so mys- 
terious that they named it Lucifer, and, as Jus- 
tice was conceived by them to be the highest deity, 
or attribute of deity, so the origin of injustice was 
typified by the fall from heaven of its brightest 
angel. They further had it that when Lucifer and 
his angels of injustice were vanquished in heaven, 
they were thrown onto the Earth, there to practice 
their wicked infltjence upon the a:ffairs of men, 
and have power for a season. That season was to 

56 



last until the christpower should prevail. 

We do not have to subscribe to any of the words 
used by those men of olden time, to know that the 
INFLUENCE of injustice is rampant to-day, as of 
yore. 

We see it and experience it every day. Even 
courts can not always do justice. The most honest 
judge is often swayed by prejudice, which is easily 
created by clever attorneys. 

Certain wrongs can never be righted by appeal- 
ing to the courts, and in many cases the triumph 
of justice is only in name. 

The recognition that injustice is an influence^ 
has overcome it, in hundreds of cases, — where the 
very courts of our land were asked to bolster up 
unjust causes. In many of those cases the courts 
had already given unjust decisions, and appeals 
had been taken, before the influences causing 
such injustice had been cast out. 

Many other kinds of injustice are rampant in 
the world to-day. Brother is unjust to brother, 
sister to sister, your best-beloved to you, and, in 
fact, this influence — Lucifer — is so persistent 
and so malignant that it attacks nearly everybody, 
some more, some less. 

If you are attacked by this influence, the sign 
of it will be that you feel yourself to be unjustly 
treated. 

Nothing can save you from it but the christ- 
power. You may try to fight against it in your own 
strength, but so you will only change it and not 
abate it. Without the christpower, man's strength 
is not able to cope with this influence. You will 
remember that our ancestors held that there was a 
great battle in heaven, between Justice and Luci- 
fer, before Lucifer could be cast out. How could 
a man then, in his own strength, hope to conquer 
if? 



57 



CHAPTER XIII. 



BAD LUCK. 



Twelfth on the ancient lists of kinds of demons 
were the demons of bad luck — spirits causing man 
to just miss good fortune of all kinds and en- 
tangling him in a network of adverse circum- 
stances. 

A man has just ten minutes to catch a train and 
the station is five minutes' ride on the street cars. 
Although at all times when it is not important to 
him he sees those street cars go by every two 
minutes, this time he has to wait eight minutes 
and so loses his train — ^^bad luck." 

Another just happens to be walking under the 
edge of a building, when a brick gets dislodged 
and hits him on the head — ^^bad luck." 

Another walks under ladders again and again 
with his old clothes on and nothing happens. But 
the day he has on a new suit, a pail of paint falls 
off the ladder and splashes him — *^bad luck." 

Soldiers shoot rifles with steady aim at the 
enemy, but only kill about one for each three hun- 
dred shots. A boy playing with an old pistol, 
which he does not know is loaded, will, if he acci- 
dentally discharges it, kill his playmate nearly 

58 



every time. Why? ''Bad luck." 

Why does bread always fall on the carpet but- 
tered side down? 

Why do the stocks you happen to buy always go 
down instead of up? 

Why do you always find you have lent money to 
people who will not or can not repay, while if you 
borrow money yourself you have to repay? 

Where does the ''jinx" come from that seems 
so ready to crush all enterprise ? 

Who dares to say he is free from every pain, 
trouble, and misfortune, unless he, at the same 
time "knocks on wood" to keep away the jinx of 
bad luck? 

Only to ask these questions brings it home to us 
that there certainly is a very real influence in- 
terfering in human affairs. 

This INFLUENCE often assumes the disguise of 
some of the other influences^ and therefore the 
greatest care is necessary in telling me about it so 
that I may know certainly which influence it is 
which is destroying you. 

You may be the victim of false gods or decept- 
ive ideals and yet think you are attacked by the 
"bad luck" influence. 

Or the "bad luck" influence may be attacking 
you in such a subtle way as to make you think you 
are the victim of Beelzebub. 

Again you may feel that the spirit of slander is 
abroad against you — that ApoUyon has you in his 
foul grip — ^when in reality it is the bad luck in- 
fluence surrounding you with accidental miscon- 
structions of words perhaps well intentioned. 

Or, accidents brought about by this influence, 
may seem to be deliberate mischiefs, creating real 
anger — apparently the work of the Belial influ- 
ence. 

You may fear revenge, and your fear may be 
wholly created by some mischance brought about 
by the Antichrist influence — ^thus does Antichrist 
ape Asmodeus. 

59 



In one sense there is no such thing as an acci- 
dent. Every mischance is the wilful work of the 
Antichrist influen^ce. So that a stronger force 
than you are (in your own strength) deliberately 
causes against you those so-called accidents and 
failures of luck. Now, there is a sense in which 
something deliberately caused by a stronger 
power cannot be said to be an accident. 

This INFLUENCE Constantly deceives its victims 
with the suggestion that their "hick will turn" — 
holding out false hopes. No one has ever known 
any "law of chances" to work out in real life, yet 
this INFLUENCE Constantly beguiles men into be- 
lieving that there is such a thing as a ^4aw of 
chances," by which the luck must turn. 

But if you will relax your preconceived ideas on 
this point you must perceive that as long as you 
are the victim of the influence^ your ^4uck will 
never turn"; whenever it is not one thing it will 
be another, until at last you accept the chkist- 
POWER, and the bad luck influence is cast out of 
your life. 

Oh, what a difference in one's life when Anti- 
christ is cast out ! 



60 



CHAPTER XIV. 



ASTAETE THE GODDESS. 



There is an influence abroad in the world which 
plays upon the nerve centers of man — as if an 
unseen hand were to reach down into a telephone 
switchboard and disturb the connections. 

Delicately poised, if let alone, the intricate 
machinery of the nerve center works smoothly 
and harmoniously, perfectly connecting the will 
with the act, the ideal with the conduct and the 
thought with the speech. 

When the hand of the influence pulls out a 
plug or disconnects a wire, of man's perfect 
mechanism, it seems as if he were doing it him- 
self, so terribly near this influence seems. And 
indeed, when he dreams, and this influence robs 
him of the connection between nerve and imagery, 
so near it is, that he will swear that it is he, him- 
self, and will hardly at all believe that it is the 
oldest known of all the influences that is victim- 
izing him. 

In the earliest dawn of history Astarte or As- 
toreth was the name given to the influence that 
was conceived of as the queen of hell; also called 
*^ Babylon." This influence was at all times felt 

61 



as a disconnecting force. A man would stand 
speechless at tlie very moment when he would have 
given his life to be able to say the right thing — 
or would not be able to move his hand at the 
instant when such movement was vital — or would 
lose control over any part of himself — then he 
would say he was afflicted of Astarte. 

To-day this iNFLUEisrcE is stronger than ever 
before, and while we know better now than to call 
it a goddess, it is certainly just as real as if it 
actually had the sex and majesty of one. And 
with what goddess beauty it can fraudulently 
clothe its foul visions, and with what silvery voices 
it can call men to destruction ! 

There is no defense against this influence 
except the christpower. Purity, prayer, fasting, 
or high resolves are all useless, because this infltj- 
ence disturbs the connection between your purity, 
prayer, fasting and high resolves on the one hand, 
and your nerves on the other. 

Purity is good for its own sake, but it is not a 
defense against this influence. Prayer and fast- 
ing and high resolves have carried men past many 
a dangerous milestone, but not past this one. 

Young and old are victimized and often goaded 
into suicide by this terribly distracting, discon- 
necting and disturbing influence. The brightest 
and bravest men and women, in the flower of their 
youth and strength, are perverted, disconnected, 
distracted and driven into madness, despair and 
suicide by this influence. It comes first in 
dreams, in which the victim sees himself perhaps 
the helpless victim of a vampire or the raging 
pursuer of a helpless one. One, who, in waking 
hours, is the mildest and gentlest of men, will see 
himself committing a foul crime — perhaps murder 
— and on awakening will feel a sense of guilt. But 
he is not at fault or to blame. There is not neces- 
sarily any evil in him that he should have such a 
dream. It is the influence. 

Do not, my brother, my sister, believe that you 

62 



are responsible, morally, for your dreams, or feel 
that there is any foul spot in you because you have 
foul dreams. You have no more to do with it than 
the battery has to do with the bell after the wire is 
cut. All that is the matter is that the Astarte 
INFLUENCE has commenced an attack upon you. 
Though I say, that is all, it is surely terrible 
enough. For this influence never leaves its vic- 
tim except for a season. It will leave you, it will 
return and still return, again and again, oftener 
and oftener, until it has you completely in its 
power. 



63 



CHAPTEE Xy. 



THIETEE]^ ADVERSE SPIRITS. 



The thirteen kinds of influences adverse to the 
human race have many variations ; or, as our an- 
cestors felt those influences, it v^ould be more 
correct to say that each prince of darkness has 
many and differing imps in his train. 

Some people now call them '* earth spirits," 
because they attack us here and now, on this earth, 
and because they do not inhabit some far distant 
hell, but work to make hell on earth. 

All primitive peoples feel the influences and 
call them demons. iN'atives of the farthest distant 
lands have similar rites and similar beliefs about 
demons. For instance in Tibet, and in West 
Africa, and in Siam, and among the North Dakota 
Indians, the art of conjuring into puppets the 
^^ demons" is a recognized rite. 

The latest investigations of travelers to every 
primitive tribe in the world have been gathered 
together by Frazer and Ernest Crawley in their 
respective books, '^Golden Bough," and the '* Mys- 
tic Rose." To these facts they have added reports 
of old customs in various counties in England, 
Germany, France and Russia. As might be ex- 
pected, the same influences are felt everywhere, 

64 



though called by di:ffereiit names in different 
places. The ^^ Mystic Rose" is especially instruc- 
tive. 

The fear of evil spirits enters into the marriage ceremonies 
of the South Celebes. 

The sedan chair in which a Manchu bride goes to the 
house of the bridegroom, is disinfected with incense to keep 
away evil spirits. 

In Eussia all doors and windows are closed at a wedding 
to keep out the influence of childlessness. 

Pontianak is the name given the influence against child- 
birth by the natives of Amboina and Ceram. 

Maoris identify the flowing of blood with the evil spirit 
Kahnkahn. 

Among the Sonthals, evil spirits are everywhere. 

In Egypt the Ginn pervade everything. 

Karlits feel the influences of spirits of the air. 

New Caledonians feel the influences of sickness and 
death and call them spirits. 

In Siam, spirits are thought to swarm in the air. 

The Kurnai live a life of dread of spells. 

Natives of Hatam dread poison infused in atmosphere. 

It is always the Spiritual danger which makes a man 
''taboo,'' and it is dangerous to others as soon as it descends 
upon him, and fills him with visno or electric force. 

Then ''he is able both to cause and cure, disease, rain, 
wind, thunder, and hail." 

Amongst the Dieri and other tribes of South Australia, 
disease is universally felt to come from devils — Cootchie. 

Cambodians believe the Arak are spirits of disease. 

Crawley adds that in primitive belief devils 
v^ere created by man in this wise — ^the picture of 
a hated enemy on the brain — ^when he shuts his 
eyes the image appears — the man's soul acquires 
^^an image of his foe, a tiny but evil spirit which 
appears within him, he knows not how or whence." 
Influences so work through human agencies — 
vetches. 

Amongst the Bongos, old women are especially suspected 
of alliance with wicked spirits. 

In British Guiana, the destroying spirit, "Kanaima," 
possesses the man and then he is called the Kanaima. 

Among the Mandingoes he is called "Mumbo Jumbo." 

In East Central Africa the people give an offering of flour 
to the spirits when a person is ill. The spirits regale them- 

of the flour. In Halmahera also, 

65 



they believe the spirits eat the essence of food. 

The Hill Dyaks place choice morsels where the spirits can 
eat their essence. Amongst the Yorubas, evil spirits are sup- 
posed to cause the illnesses of children. 

The spirits are supposed to eat the spiritual part of the 
children's food. 

Central Australians say a magic evil influence, called 
Arungquiltha, causes all contagion. 

Badi is the name given by the Malays to the evil influ- 
ence pursuing everything that has life, it brings illness of 
every conceivable kind. 

Laplanders attribute disease to magic birds. 

People of the Kei Islands, Australian Islanders, East 
Central Africans, as well as the Dakota Indians, suck the 
injured part or apply the cupping process to draw out the 
evil spirit. 

^^This,'' remarks Crawley, ^4s scientific in a 
way/' (Mystic Rose, p. 86). 

All these learned writers make their own so- 
called science harmonize with the so-called super- 
sition of the primitive peoples of the whole 
world. 

Australian women '*sing,'' e. g., "I love you,*' and "May 
your spirit be brave and true, ' ' over food giving it a hoemeo- 
pathical magical quality, so that when eaten by the man, he 
receives the blessings so intended. 

^^Not only civilized ideas,'' adds Crawley, *'but 
hmnan systems and institutions of the most im- 
portant character are built on these foundations." 

Bulgarians before drinking make the sign of the cross, to 
prevent the devil entering the body with the liquor. 

Fasting was — similarly — ^to prevent evil spirits from enter- 
ing the body. 

In the Aroo Islands, Kola Kobroor, the Babar Islands, 
Islands of Wetar, Java, Nias, Amboina, Uliase and Bum, 
they believe in evil spirits that particularly oppress women. 

The Battas attribute anger to evil spirits. 

When a man is sick, to drive away the evil spirits, the Aru 
Islanders fire off guns round the house ,• the Ceramese, Watu- 
bela and Kei Island natives move the sick man secretly to 
another house to ' ' deceive the spirits. ' * In Celebes a dummy 
is left in the sick man^s bed. 

A mourner in Andaman Islands will shoot arrows into 
the jungle thinking that he hits evil spirits. 

A wide generalization can be made of all the 
experiences felt by mankind, and Crawley, speak- 



ing as a scientist, referring to the influences^ 
says that such a wide generalization (i. e., that all 
men feel the spirit influences), ^*has within it, 
though concealed in fallacy, a scientific truth, des- 
tined to emerge after a training in analysis." 
(Page 199). 

Dyaks attribute disease and death to influ- 
ences called by them ^*Petara." 

The Mintra of the Malay Peninsula feel a separ- 
ate INFLUENCE;, differing and separately named, 
corresponding to every disease known to them. 

The Tasmanian attributes every gnawing pain 
to the presence within him of an influence which 
had formerly possessed some man now dead. 

Zulus sacrifice cattle (and thus accept the free- 
dom from influences) . In all parts of the world 
the sacrifice of objects or animals is made. 

Suppose all tribes of men sprung or developed 
from separate causes in places far different from 
each other. Then suppose you visited each tribe 
on a fine day but found them all in possession of 
umbrellas. The conclusion would be irresistible 
that in each of those places rain sometimes fell. 

So, when the same idea of sacrifice, to ward off 
evil spirits, is found in every corner of the earth, 
the logician argues therefrom that in each of 
those places such influences actually exist. 

There is a period in the growth when a sensi- 
tive feeling recognizes influences not felt by 
thicker skins. Those men whose hearts have been 
large, have in all ages testified and do now testify, 
to the terrible presence of these adverse influ- 
ences. 

Emanuel Swedenborg testified as follows : 

' * What wickedness there is in infernal spirits, may be mani- 
fest from their atrocious arts, which are so numerous that to 
enumerate them would fill a volume, and to describe them, 
many volumes; those arts are mostly unknown in the world. 
One kind relates to the abuses of correspondences; a second, 
to the abuses of the ultimates of Divine order; a third, to 
communication and influx of thoughts and affections, by con- 
versions, by inspections, and by other spirits besides them- 

67 



selves, and by those sent from themselves; a fourth, to oper- 
ations by phantasies; a fifth, to projections out of them- 
selves, and consequent presence elsewhere than where they 
are with the body; a sixth, to pretenses, persuasions, and 
lies. By these arts they torment. But since all of these arts, 
except those which are effected by pretenses, persuasions, and 
lies are unknown in the world, I will not here describe them 
specifically, as well because they would not be comprehended, 
as because they are too bad to be told. ' ^* 

*"Heaven and the world of Spirits." Sec. 580. 

All the tMrteen black princes, as they were 
called, have troops of ^^ black angels," or as we 
would call them, in'fluences. 

Some fasten on the soul and present you in a 
bad light to others. They also set all others 
against you, against your plans and desires, and 
against your happiness ; making you despised and 
hated without cause and making those who would 
otherwise gladly do your will and bless you in 
their hearts, plot against you. 

Other INFLUENCES often oppress you by fits of 
despondency, melancholy, regret and remorse. You 
find yourself burdened by a sense of sin which 
something urges you to teU or by a passionate 
regret that you did something the way you did. 
Nothing but the cheistpowee can set you free, — 
free not only from the haunting fear of blame, 
not only from the influence urging you forward 
to the precipice of self -accusation, but free in the 
knowledge that the past is forgotten, and the in- 
fluence^ which remembered it, is cast out and 
dead. Then at last you will feel safe that nothing 
can ever be remembered against you. 

Other INFLUENCES attack the nerves. Should 
you sense pain without visible physical cause, you 
are being attacked by this influence. Pain is of 
two kinds; of visible and invisible origin. For 
instance, if you cut yourself, the pain is of visible 
origin; on the other hand if you have pain first 
in one side of the face and then in the other, that 
is of invisible origin. These influences fasten 
themselves upon the body and torment it unceas- 

68 



ingly, and yet it can be endured by the soul with- 
out the madness that other influences bring on. 

The INFLUENCE that whispers and mutters in 
your brain gives you the sensations of hearing 
voices, dreaming dreams, seeing visions, etc. At 
first harmless, afterwards the most enervating. If 
you awake in the morning unrefreshed, feeling as 
if your lif eblood had been drained away, you are 
in the power of the vampire influence^ draining 
your very soul. 

There is also the ^ ^failure influence.-'" Man is 
the image and likeness of God, and is not doomed 
forever to fail. To accept the cheistpower for 
the casting out of the failure influence evidences 
the highest degree of faith. But for that influ- 
ence in your life you would hold all the threads 
of your fate in your own hands. Then when free 
from that influence^ you will learn SUCCESS. 
No man can teach you success while you remain 
bound by the Spirit of Failure, but after you have 
accepted the christpower and become free from 
that INFLUENCE^ you will develop accordingly. 

Another influence brings on disease, either of 
yourself, or of some one dear to you, usually a 
child. Only the christpower can cast out this 
influence. But it is given unto many to minister 
beneficially to disease. So until the christpower 
is accepted effectually for this influence^ fear not 
to use all so-called '^material" means and advice 
from wise physicians, for none of these can pre- 
vent the effectiveness of accepting the christ- 
power^ and the eventual complete freedom from 
that INFLUENCE in your life. 

The influences, or ^^ Earth Spirits," which 
come to individuals with the acquisition of any- 
thing which is believed to be valuable are very 
potent. Many cases might be recounted where a 
so-called curse rested upon the owner of some 
special diamond, ruby, or other stone. The like 
influences come to those who have, or suddenly 
appreciate that they have, or who receive or win, 



any considerable money. 

TMs INFLUENCE not Only affects the mind and 
body, but is so sensitive and suspicious tbat, 
should you see One with His hand beckoning away 
from that money, it would whisper to your mind 
to guard the money closer and to beware of giving 
it up, *^for," saith the influence^ ^^he who offers 
help is insincere and only wants your money.'' 

There are other influences^ such as the liquor 
and drug habits and many others, which oppress 
the soul of man. Many of these can be fought for 
a time with your own strength, and they can be 
conquered by some. But for any influence what- 
ever, the only sure relief is to be found in the 
christpowee. 



70 



